


Things that Change, Things that Stay the Same

by bagog



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Hoodies, M/M, Post-War, cloth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-10
Updated: 2015-03-10
Packaged: 2018-03-17 05:39:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3517448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bagog/pseuds/bagog
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kaidan and Shepard's lives change a lot after the war, but they still manage to leave their hoodies lying all over the place.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Things that Change, Things that Stay the Same

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Jocu19](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jocu19/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Household Hoodies](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3420512) by [Jocu19](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jocu19/pseuds/Jocu19). 



> This is based on Jocu19's Household Hoodies, because I loved the idea and immediately wrote a fluffy little piece when I saw it was in the works. 
> 
> I offer here a... prequel... of sorts? I'm so utterly trying to ape Jocu19's piece, I actually spelled it 'hoody' (which I guess is technically correct? HA!), possibly also to disassociate it with my own dismally depressing N7 Hoodie story. 
> 
> There's an arbitrarily long amount of time between each POV switch.
> 
> Hope you like it.

** Shepard **

Shepard turned on some music, cooked a little something for dinner, settled down to read before turning in for the night.

Kaidan was gone to a symposium in Singapore for the next few days, but Shepard’s PT sessions could not be missed, so here he was in their apartment, alone. After a life spent in the military, even the silence of a private captain’s cabin had been maddening before Kaidan’s… regular visits.

Maybe it was all the time spent in military gear, but Shepard never felt quite like he was off-duty until he was relaxing in his hoody. His was draped over the table in the kitchen, but…

He opened the bedroom closet. Shepard’s clothes were hung to the left, mostly haphazardly thrown onto hangers that hooked both ways over the wrack. But on the right, Kaidan’s blue hoody hung primly just where his husband had left it.

He pulled the hoody over his head without unzipping it, settled back onto the couch. That felt a lot better.

When he went to bed in a few hours, he’d leave it by the side of the bed.

It became his ritual whenever Kaidan went away.

~~~

** Kaidan **

When Kaidan opened the front door, the first thing he noticed was Shepard’s black N7 hoody lying on the ground beneath the coatrack. This was never a good sign.

Kaidan stooped to pick up the jacket, still slightly damp from Shepard’s run. More often than not these days, Shepard would stumble back in from a run, his body rebelling against being forced into keeping the pace he’d developed during his Villa days, and in the fog of pain he’d drop his hoody on the floor right inside the door. Kaidan would often find his sneakers in the living room, his shorts in the hall, and Shepard himself sprawled out in the tub for hours.

Kaidan carried the hoody with him into the living room—

—and there was Shepard, flat on his back on the living room floor, eyes squeezed shut tight, bare chest rising and falling with deep, labored breaths.

“Shepard!”

“Ugh,” Shepard cracked an eye opened, smiling through a smile, “Hey… you’re home early…” a spasm shot through his back, and he raised a knee to try to relieve the pressure.

“How long have you been laying here?” Kaidan rushed over and kneeled on the floor, gently laying a hand on Shepard’s shoulder.

“Umm….” Shepard sighed deeply, “a while? Sorry about leaving my clothes around…” he reached up to take the hoody out of Kaidan’s hand, wiping the cloth up his torso, over where his forehead was beaded with sweat.

Usually, Kaidan would try to use the opportunity to once again encourage Shepard to take up some low-impact exercises that wouldn’t rattle his hip so badly. Post-run pain seemed to be about the only time Shepard even _pretended_ to listen to that kind of advice. But Kaidan knew there was no point: the allure of real gravity, actual earth under his feet, was something Shepard hadn’t had a lot of. Kaidan had never really mentioned to Shepard how much his own swims left his shoulder sore for days. Not as if Shepard didn’t know.

“Did you take your pill?” Kaidan asked, one hand on Shepard’s face. Shepard shook his head miserably.

“I thought about it while I was running… my pills weren’t in the pocket…”

Kaidan had finally convinced Shepard to keep his painkillers in the pocket of his hoody, but these days…

Shepard had worn Kaidan’s hoody on his run for the past two weeks, and so he’d left the pill bottle in that pocket. They’d talked about it. Kaidan’s brow furrowed even as he rolled his eyes.

He bee-lined for the bedroom closet, reached into the pocket of his own blue hoody hanging there, and removed a small bottle of muscle relaxants. He returned to Shepard with a single pill in his hand, lifted Shepard’s head and held the pill to his mouth.

“This is what you get for not just sticking to your own damn sweatshirt, Shepard!”

Shepard smiled weakly after swallowing the pill, fingers clutching Kaidan’s shoulder for support as his husband helped him up.

“Yours is softer.”

“So why didn’t you wear it today?” Kaidan got Shepard up on his feet, braced an arm around his body.

“Couldn’t find it…”

“It was in the _closet,_ Shepard.”

“Ah, that’s not where I left it.” Shepard winced, but chuckled lightly as Kaidan helped him into the bathroom.

 

~~~

** Shepard **

It was Friday.

Shepard got back from his run and showered. He toweled off in the bedroom, smiled when he saw Kaidan’s clothes laid out on the bed.

It had been a long time coming, but on days when Kaidan knew he was going to be home early, he would lay out a change of clothes for himself on the bed. It was a sort of promise to himself to relax when he got back.

During the war, Kaidan had two changes of uniforms and a couple books. Civvies felt like a luxury, and the more he was looking forward to an evening home, the more carefully he laid the clothes out for himself. Until their wedding, Shepard had only seen him in clothes other than his uniform a handful of times. Kaidan’s casual clothes were almost as much a treat for Shepard as for Kaidan.

Like every Friday, a pair of jeans and Kaidan’s hoody were laid on the bed, as if Kaidan himself were lying there. The blue hoody was folded with the sleeves behind the back, parade rest. The idea of Kaidan in parade rest brought a sly grin to Shepard’s face—a grin helped along by the jeans Kaidan had selected to wear. If Shepard was right… yes, these were those particularly _form fitting_ jeans. He could tell from the one belt loop that he had sewn back on for his husband a few months ago.

Kaidan would be home in an hour. Shepard laid himself down on the bed next to Kaidan’s casual clothes. Maybe he’d just wait here.

 

~~~

** Kaidan **

Shepard was an energetic lover.

Also an energetic sleeper.

Tonight, again, Shepard had been asleep no more than ten minutes before aggressively yanking the covers off Kaidan, and wrapping them around himself on the other side of the bed. Shepard wasn’t great about the cold, his cabin on the Normandy had always been sweltering.

Like most nights, Kaidan had tried pulling the covers back, but Shepard locked down around them like they were a lifeline.

Trying to snuggle underneath them would just push Shepard closer to the edge of the bed as he scooted away.

He could try sweet talking into Shepard’s ear, making him smile in his sleep till he rolled over and wrapped his arms around Kaidan. Some nights this would be enough, but if Shepard had a stressful day coming up, moments later he would coil up in the blankets again and leave Kaidan alone on his side of the bed.

And this is where Kaidan found himself tonight. Shepard at one edge of the bed with all the blankets, Kaidan on the other. Still, it was better than the days where a bad dream or a stressful next day would have Shepard out of bed every hour all night. Nights where Kaidan had had the bed to himself while Shepard paced the room, the ship, the house, the street. Nights warm under the covers with only his own body heat.

All told, he preferred this.

Still, he was chilly. Leaning over the edge of the bed, he grasped around till his fingers closed around soft fabric. He pulled the hoody up off the floor, in the dark it was hard to tell whether it was his or Shepard’s. He’d never really paid attention to the way they felt before. He pressed it to his face. It smelled like Shepard, but it also smelled like him.

He smiled a little in the dark as he slipped into the jacket, zipping it up, raising the hood, and settling back into his pillow. He tucked his feet in the one little corner of blankets still anchored to the foot of his side of the bed, and was asleep in no time.

An hour before their alarm was supposed to go off, Kaidan came to, the feel of warm hands against his chest. When he opened his eyes, Shepard was pressed into his side—having completely abandoned the covers on the other side of the bed—and was lightly shivering, coiled into himself, his hand pushed up under the hoody Kaidan was wearing.

Kaidan groaned and chuckled slightly, the break in his rhythmic breathing jolting Shepard awake.

“Whas—You okay?” Shepard mumbled, nestling his face closer into the warmth of Kaidan’s neck, his body shuddering.

Shepard pushed his hands higher up Kaidan’s chest under the hoody, leaving a cold spot on Kaidan’s belly where the hem of the sweatshirt lifted up. He grumpily yanked the hem down, keeping Shepard’s warm hands against his chest.

“You hog the covers, now you’ve come for my hoody too? At least trade for it!” Kaidan chuckled, retrieving the blanket and sheets by reaching around Shepard’s body, allowing him to push his face into Kaidan’s hood.

Laying in bed facing one another, both beneath the covers at last, Shepard’s body slowly stretched out against Kaidan, his hands rubbing their heat into Kaidan’s front.

“Guess I just like your hoody,” Shepard mumbled sleepily into Kaidan’s neck, “Smells like you.”

In the dim predawn light from the window, Kaidan could just make out the small N7 embroidery on the chest. They both eased back into a deep sleep. Shepard didn’t seize the covers again, and after the alarm sounded some time later, he turned it off and returned to bed with Kaidan.

 

~~~

** Shepard **

By the time Shepard got home, the late afternoon light was slanting through the bay windows in the living room. The house was quiet except for the gentle rattle of the oak trees outside, a light breeze drifting in through the screen-door to the patio bringing the smell of falling leaves into the house.

“Kaidan?” Shepard called into the house, no reply. Shepard carefully peaked around the corner, staring down at the couch, “Shaun?”

His son usually pounced on him right around that corner when Shepard got home. Kaidan must’ve taken the boy out.

Shepard slipped out of his jacket, his shoes and socks, and padded into the bedroom closet. Of course his hoody wasn’t hanging up in the closet. He probably left it around here somewhere…

After a lazy search through the living room, digging through the bathroom hamper, searching for where it usually got crammed under the bed, Shepard noticed the bright blue flash of Kaidan’s hoody draped, as usual, over a chair on the deck.

Shepard stepped out onto the deck and lifted the hoody to his face. The cotton was sun-warmed but still smelled like a BC autumn. The way it smelled after Kaidan had spent all afternoon playing with Shaun outside, chasing after squirrels, rolling around in leaf piles, playing hide and seek in the trees until Kaidan got so warm he’d unzip his jacket and toss it up on the deck. It smelled like Kaidan, like leaves, like earth.

Probably Kaidan would’ve left it on the deck till the next time he went out with Shaun. It had been a long time since Kaidan had been so… cavalier about his possessions.

Shepard found his husband, their son snuggled into his chest, napping in a patch of sunlight just inside the woods. Kaidan probably tuckered out first, they were both feeling the years these days. Shepard eased himself gently onto the ground, his hip protesting the hard ground until he settled. He spread the warm hoodie like a blanket over Kaidan and Shaun, and laid his head next to Kaidan’s, the whisper of the pines above blending with the sound of Kaidan’s rhythmic breathing.

There was a gentle kiss on his forehead, and neither Shepard nor Kaidan opened their eyes.

“Yours is under the couch,” Kaidan whispered into Shepard’s hair, “After last night… Remember?”

Shepard smiled, repositioned his bad hip and laid an arm over his family.

“Had other things on my mind.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading this saccharine fluffy drabble! I write fluffy drabbles when I'm really tired. Which I think is why the characters are constantly going to sleep in my stories... I appreciate you reading such a little thing. You guys man, you guys are so cool.


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